After almost a decade Epic
Games finally created a new franchise to add
to Unreal. Unfortunately, it only lasted one
game before they moved exclusively to the Xbox,
but I'm glad we got at least one single-player
game in Gears of War. Obviously Unreal was a
classic, but Unreal II was critically disappointing,
so Epic really had to create something special,
in my opinion, to live up to their grand reputation.
Did they suceed? Probably not, but try telling
that to the Xbox crowd.
This seems to be becoming a
common trend in each game I review - it looks
good. In this case, fantastic. As to be expected
from Unreal Engine 3, the environments are chocka
full of detail with backgrounds of epic proportions.
Too many games turn into claustraphobic corridor
crawls missing any kind of grand, imposing environment.
Not true with Gears of War, as there are some
massive looking levels. This is, of course,
just part of scenery because the very linear
path you follow is quite tight and small. There's
very little exploration or wandering off course.
Basically Gears does share those simularities
with corridor shooters, but at least you've
got some large scale eye candy around you. In
fact, while this is a sci-fi shooter, the level
design felt almost fantasy-like much of the
time. Fantasy-Sci Fi perhaps? The one negative
of the art and design is that everything is
very dull and BROWN. Where's the colour in this
world?
Now there are some other nitpicks
with this game, some of which are more personal
that general. No quicksaving is present; always
a bad thing. Only two main weapons at a time,
a nasty gremlin copied from Halo I assume, which
developers really need to stop doing because
I hate having to play through a game with the
same couple of weapons. Sure I could pick up
another weapon, but why bother if they're not
as good or only suit certain situations? Instead
I equipped myself with a machine gun and a...
machine gun. Oh such variety! There's also almost
no story. Sure you've got your mission, you've
got regular team-mates who spit some quick funny
lines. But what is this war and who am I fighting?
There's no backstory at all. Would it really
have been too hard to make a two minute intro
on what the hell this game is about, like a
lead up to how this war first begun? It wasn't
until I finished the game and Wiki'd the plots
to the sequels that I realised it wasn't supposed
to be earth!
The difficulty was just right
for me on casual, as I don't need too much of
a challenge. Only a few instances did I have
to reload the same checkpoint more than twice.
However for the less skilled players, there
needs to be an easy difficulty. Some could say
this game is a little difficult.
The gameplay throughout Gears
was consistently fun with enough variety in
battles and bosses. In fact some of these enemies
I really liked, especially the Boomer and Beserker.
It's been a long time since I came upon a semi-boss
I hated so much as the Beserker. However I think
the lack of quicksave contributes towards that
feeling, as I know if she gets me I have to
start all over. And while that means you really
fear her, it's also damn frustrating when you
do have to start the battle again.
So, 2006 comes down to Prey
vs Gears of War for action shooter of the year.
And I've got to give it to Gears because, while
it doesn't do anything new, Prey's antigravity
and portal ideas became ugly and irritating
after a while. Gears at heart is just another
action-shooter, like I said with nothing new,
but it does it to a very high standard with
great looking design and fun gameplay.
